Spring-needle circular-knitting machine.



R. W. SCOTT. SPRiNG NEEDLE CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FIL'E'D Aue, 12'. 1912.

1,201,511. Patented 0011111916.;

2 SHEETS-SHEET Plfij 6 8/ fill lllllllll 64y H r -1 V U 15 j ba W I Inucm'on I R. W. SCOTT.

. SPRING NEEDLE CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE.

' 7 APPLICATION FILED AUGJZ, 1912. 31,21,511, Q Patented 001. 17,1916.

2 SHEETSS HEET 2- Figs . kLgm/enf or v {9'7 W/fnesses z gar" 'State of Massachusetts,

fixed sinker,

ROBERT w. soorrr, or BOSTON, MASSACH INCORPORATED, 015 PHILADELPHIA, ERsEY.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ROBERT W. SCOTT, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Boston, in the county of Sufiolk and have invented a new and useful Spring-Needle Circular-Knitting Machine, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to circular independent needle machines capable of making finev gage fabrics by the use of spring beard needles, and specifically to such machines capable of use for the manufacture of narrow tubular fabrics such as are employed largely in place of woven braids and tapes in the manufacture of underwear, and for {the making of fabric for gas mantles and the ike.

An object of my invention is to provide a -machine of the character stated capable of knitting fine gage webs at a high speed, for instance from 1000 to 1500courses per minute.

To these and other ends my invention relates to the improved knitting instruments proper, of which I will describe certain specific forms only, as pointed out in the claims with respect to the generic invention embodied in the particular mechanism selected for illustration, and of which in the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is an elevation on an enlarged scale of a knitting head and its supporting of the cam presser.

improved devices constitute In the forms selected for illustration, my one knitting head of a multiple head machine, such as that shown in myapplication, jointly with Harry Swinglehurst, filed August 12, 1912, Serial No. 714,525 in which application the supporting, driving and cooperating mechanisms-employed with my new' devices are described and claimed in connection with Specification of Letters Patent.

they are disclosed.

needle cylinder broken needles.

for the extreme nicety of ad: justment desirable in machines USETTS, ASSIGNOR TO SCOTT & WILLIAMS, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF IIEW SPRING-NEEDLE CIRCULAR-KNITTING MACHINE.

Patented Oct. 1'7, 1916.

Application filed August 12, 1912. Serial No. 714,535.

latch-needle knittingheads'. But it will be understood that my new devices are applicable to other forms of high-speed knitting machines, such as hosiery and underwear .machines of lar 'er diameter, and that the knitting instruments proper of the present disclosure are of general application and utility apart from the specific holding and operating means in connection with which The knitting head, which isof the simple and durable construction disclosed in the said application, consists of the needle cylinder 8, which also acts as a spindle for the reception of the cam ring 9, which has integrally formed with it the extension 10 carrying the grooved wheel '11 for the belt 7. The lower portion of the cylinder is reduced to form a shoulder 12 and is threaded at 13 to take a hand nut 14 having an oil receivingchannel 15 in its upper face.

The table A, recessed as shown at 16 in Fig. 1, is provided with an integral crossbar 17 at the bottom of each recess, having a central boss 18 in a bore in which the needle cylinder is seated, and against the upper machined face of which shoulder 12 of the cylinder is tightly drawn by the nut 14.

The. cam ring is prevented from rising bylugs 19, which are secured for adjustment as by screws 20 to the part 10 of the cam'ring. These lugs have inturned feet which pass through openings 21 in the cam ring, and engage with an annular slot 22 formed in the as shown in Fig. 2. Within the cam cylinder 9 an advancing or clearing. cam 23, Which' may be a section of a tube, or annulus, milled to shape on its upper face, is seate The stitch or draw cam 25 is of similar construction, except that it is 'pr'ovided'with an opening for the removal upwardly of I employ,

of this class, the particular adjustment forv the cam 25 shown in Fig. 1. A vertical slot 27-i's milled in the wall of the cam cylinder inwhich a pin or-screw 28 fast'in the cam 25 has vertical freedom of movement without play in a horizontal sense.- At a' lower point in said stitch cam 25 a headed the upper end of 30, the lower end-of and shouldered screwv 29, also movable freely in the slot 27, carries which surrounds the eccentric member 31 of a stud 32 fitting in a bore in the wall of the cam cylinder. The eccentric member 32 is slotted to be adjusted by a screw driver. By 5 loosening the screw 29 a very delicate adjustment of the stitch cam in a vertical sense may be made and the adjusting members may be clamped without altering the adjustment by tightening said screw 29 against the link 30 and the wall of the cam cylinder.

The needle-cylinder is furnished with a full complement of spring beard needles 50, .which may have integral butts 55 or be pro- ,vided in a well known manner with sepathe needle cams. These needles are rela tively free, typically working without suflicient friction in their grooves to support them against gravity. To aid in retaining them in their grooves, aganst the thrust of the presser, presently to be described, 1' provide a. circumferential groove 40 in the nee dle cylinder above the top of the cam cylinder, the bottom 0t which is substantially of the same diameter as the outer face of the shanks of the-circle of needles 50. In "said groove, resting upon the shoulder formed by the-walls of the deeper needle grooves, beneath and held down by the flange 4:2, which is penetrated by the needle grooves, I provide a retaining ring 41 which is split diametrically and hihged at 4:2. Said ring is provided with a spring latch 43 having a finger grip 44, to enable it to be released to open the ring upon its diameter when it is necessary to remove or insert a needle. A

The long tubular needle cylinder 8 is sufficiently resilient to permit high speeds of the elements rotating upon it even when they are not in perfect balance, the cylinder 8 deforming under the eccentric strain and tak-' ing a central position with respect to the nutating mass to a suflicient degree to permit any practicable speed within the limit set by the permissible speed of motion of the needles in the grooves, as described in said application. As described therein, I also find it desirable sometimes to provide a very' loose running fit of the bore in the cam cylinder 10, and to set the lugs 1-9 to lift the pulley 10 sufiiciently from boss 18 to permit a small degree of rocking motion of the cam cylinder.

Coiacting with the needles at the upper end of the cylinder, I provide yarn-manipulating sinker or Web-holder elements serving four distinct functions. first, to prevent the rise of the loops of the last course knit with the upward movement of the needle to take new yarn for a new course; second, to support the new yarn against the shanks of the needles to present it with certainty under the open, impressed boards; and third, to provide a knocking-over shoulder to prevent rate jacks having butts for coaction wit the old loop from folloaving the downward movement of the needles, and fourth, to place the sinker wales of a completed course under suflicient inward strain to clear the old loops inwardly from the path of the ascending needles.

In spring-beard needle machines known in the prior art, it has been usual to form the course of new loops by first thrusting or sinking enough yarn for the loops between the needles by independently movable sinkers, in which case there is no necessity for independently moving the needles, which are then capable of knitting by simultaneous movements. It has also been. proposed to permit the hooked head of the needle to draw its own yarn' loop by its recession beneath the verge of the needle-cylinder, the verge of the cylinder or the ends of the walls between the needle grooves forming an abutment against which thereceding needles in turn draw 01f enough yarn for a new stitch, for instance, as shown in the patent to W. W. Clay, No. 40993, Dec.,22, 1863. The behavior of the spring beard needles in amachine such as that of the patent to Clay is in all respects similar to the operation of a latch needle working under the same circumstances, except that it is necessary to able it to cast ofi' over its head the loop. oi?

the previous course.

For my present purposes, I desire to retain, while using the spring beard needle, the old function of determining the length of loop drawn by the degree of the recession of the needle head below the knocking'over line, which line is determined, as is Well known inthe art, by the location of the instruments which prevent the needle loop upon the shank of the needle from following the mpvement of the needle when it re cedes into its carrier.

- In the form of my device shown in Fig. 2

stationary yarn-manipulating instruments 60, shown in detail in Fig. 6, are provided. Said instruments are placed centrally between the needles in radial planes. A convenient construction results from mounting the instruments 60 in deep milled slots central between the needle grooves where they I may be held-by friction or by soldering them in place. Each of said instruments 60 is provided on its interior face with a notch 61, the notches, when the instruments are in place, together forming an annular groove in the internal face of the upper ends of the members 60, which are curved upwardly as at 62 above said slot and cut away on the outside, as at 63, to form an external notch, said external notches 63 forming a groove on the exterior face of the solid defined by said instruments when in place.

The bottom of the annular groove formed by the notches 61 determines the knocking- 1e ard 66, which the annular groove I to follow the needle over line. The shoulder above said groove is that which resists the tendency of the loop upwardly when it rises, and is thereforefunctionally a web-holder.

The curved face 62 projects outwardly beyond the front face of the needles and forms with the cylindrical solid defined by the frontfaces of the shanks of the projected needles a v' shapedv upwardly open groove, the'interior wall of which is made up of the shanks of the needles. The delivery opening of the yarn guide 65, which is located the face 62 of the instruments 60.

Mounted upon the cam cylinder is a standsupports the yarn guide '65 and a cam presser 67, adjustably mounted by screw 68 upon said standard. The beveled working face of said presser 67 runs in notches 63 at a low point relative to the knocking-over line. The presser is thus enabled to. first encounter the needle beards when the needles have receded to a point at which the old loop, lying on the bottom of the groove determined by the notches 61, is

' close to the point ofthe needle heard. The

provision of the groove formed by the notches 63 therefore, enables me to delay pressing until the last possible instant for this operation, and therefore enables me to provide a longer period of time, or greater space, during which to arrange the new yarn withtiin the hook of the needle and under the ear The receding needles take the new yarn fed from the guide against their shanks and by friction tend to draw it the downward motion of the needles, which takes place during the passage of the down wardslope of cam 25, which may extend through an arc of 90 or more, .which are measures the minimum lead of guide 65 with respect to the knitting point. The'faces 62 of the instruments 60 intervene'before the 1 receding needles encounter the face of the presser, to secure the detention of the yarn with respect to the movement of the needles sufiiciently to enable the points of the beards to pass over the yarn before the pressing point is reached. In case any of the needles should stand away from the surface of the cylinder theoretically defined by their front faces, the inclination of the face 62 of the instruments 60 is suflicient to cause the yarn sharp needle heard.

to tend nevertheless to follow into the depression at or in the neighborhood of such a misplaced needle, and so enable the yarn to enter the hook of the needle Without danger of stabbing itsthickness by the delicate and Such stabbing I have found to be the most fruitful cause of breakages and imperfect work, and its avoidance is a matter of 'prime importance. The

' proper positioning of the determined by the down with not be subjected the spaces between them are yarn is also greatly aided by the relatively great throw or clearance given to the needles, which are advanced well above the level of the yarn-guide and the faces 62 of the instruments 60 b the cam 23, to'enable the new yarn to be for a comparatively-long time under the frictlonal drag of I It will be se en'from the above that the instruments 60 hold. the yarn against a the shanks of the needles by reason of their in ward slope, the wrapping about the advanced needles of the new yarn, and the. motion of the needles, so firmly as to cause it to follow irregularities in the disposition of the needles, and also hold said yarn from following theneedles at the critical time when the needle is passing downwardly to. take the new yarn beneath the point of its board, and that the interior sides of said instruments are so formed as to permitthe yarn engaged by the needles to pass downwardly to rest at the lmocking-overline, while they provide at the bottom and top of the notches6l, respectively, knocking-over points and web-holder points for the respective functions indicated.

It will be understood that the nose of the sink r or instrument 60 between the web holding groove 61 and the face 62 projects the descending needle shank.

press the yarns between the needles. This Is not enough, however, in the usual state of ad ustment, to draw oft enough yarn to form .loops, even for a fabric of the maximum stiffness or shortness of loop intended to be formed. The length of the loop is determined by the position of the cam 25, which in turn determines the amount of recession of the hook of the needle below the knocking-over line defined by thegbottom wall of the groove made up of the notches 61.

There is necessarily sufficient lateral clearance between the faces of the instruments 60 and the'sides of the needle hooks to enable the passage of the thickness of the yarn. I have found, however, that it is sometimes desirable to reduce this clearance to that barely necessary for the thickest yarn intended to be used. It is also desirable that the beards of the needles .shall to any lateral strain during the time they are being acted upon by the presser 67. To avoid this I may increase the thickness of'the instruments 60 so that just wide enough for the movement without friction of the hooks and beards of the needles, thus providing a lateral support for the needle beard at the. moment of its contact with the presser. Such an arrangement would cause the yarn to be cut bythe needle hook for lack of clearance except for the provision of the reduced portion 69 of the "instruments- 60*, Fig. 5, which provides clearanceroom for the yarn without decreasing the thickness of the instrument at the other points. The reduced portion (39 may be conveniently formed by a milling or stamping operation involving either one or both faces of the;

instruments.

In order to avoid the strains occasioned a form shown in Fig. 3 are thesame as in the form shown in Fig. 2, or in Fig. 5.

- Each of the pressers is provided with a butt 73 running in an eccentric groove 74 in the under face of a presser cam 7 5,which runs upon the upper face of the presser dial 72,"'upon which it is. held by the flanged ring 76 overlapping the under face of the flange 77 of the presser dial 72. The ring 7 6 is attached to the presser cam ring by screws 78, in bore holes 79 and 80. Said bore holes are formed on a line perpendicular to the maximum eccentricity of the groove 74 so that one of the holes, 80, may be slotted circumferentially to enable the cam 75 to be rocked on the screw 79 as a center and locked by tightening the screw 78, to adjust the effective thrust of the pressers through the small distance neces- An arm 80 attached to the outside of the cam cylinder, Fig. 1, drives the presser cam by contact with the pin 81 on the under solid needle retaining ring'41, which can be machined to an accurate internal face 51, having sufiicient clearance to avoid much friction upon the needles, a great aid in the operation of the machine. Said ring serves as a solid abutment to take the thrust of the presserscommunicated to it by the tendency of the needles to act as levers having their fulcrum points at the vergeof the needle cylinder.

It will be understood that while I have disclosed a grooved needle-cylinder as the carrier for the needles, said disclosure is illustrative only, since it is obvious that the needle carrier might well be, for instances only, a flat plate having parallel grooves, or a circular dial having radial grooves, with out departing from my invention, which rependently of any known or other arrange-' ment f the needles with respect to their carrier, their cams, or each other, which I may elect to employ.

Having described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Eetters Patent is 1. A knitting machine having in combination a yarn-guide, a needle carrier and independently movable spring beard needles therein, a cam carrier and needle cams there- 'on adapted to advance and retract the needles, in combination with instruments fixed to a part of said machine and standing be-- tween the needles, said instruments having downward-1y and inwardly sloping faces and inwardlypointed noses, and means acting to press the needle-beards when their points are beneath said faces.

2. A knitting machine having a yarn guide, a needle carrier, and independently movable spring beard needles therein, and

acam carrier and needle cams thereon, incombination with yarn positionlng and sinking instruments fixed at the verge of said.

needle carrier having yarn positioning faces defining an inwardly sloping surface intersected by said needles, said surface being separated from said verge, means to supply yarn against the shanks of projected needles,

and means to close the spring beards acting between said surface and said verge.

3. A knittingmachine having a needle carrier, independently movable spring-beard needles therein, means to advance and retract said needles in succession, a yarn-guide and fixed instruments standing at the verge of said carrier between said needles, said instruments having faces permanently defining a surface separated from said verge and intersected by said needles and sloping downward and toward said needles, whereby a yarn fed to said needles when advanced will upon retraction of said needles be held against the needles to pass under their spring-beards, and means to press saidnecdie beards after they have taken over the yarn.

4. In a knitting machine, a needle-carrier and independently movable sprin beard tweensaid instruments in line with the nee.- r

dle beards being of a width sufficient only for the free passage of the needle beards, whereby said beards are supported against lateral movement while beingpressed.

5. In a knitting machine, a needle-carrier and independently 'movable spring beard needles therein, needle cams fel'atively mov- 13o able with respect to said carrier, a needle presser relatively fixed with respect to the cams, a yarn guide and instruments having yarn guiding and holding faces intercalated among the needles, the spaces between said instruments in line with the needle beards being of a width sufficient only for the free passage of the needle beards, whereby said beards are supportedagainst lateral movement while being pressed.

- 6'. In a knitting machine, a needle carrier and independently movable spring-beard needles, knitting devices including a presser laterally movable with respect to the needles, in combination with instruments having supporting faces and internal notches at the verge of the needle cylinder extending into each space between the needles, said instruments filling the spaces between the needles and providing lateral support against the thrust of the presser for the headsofthe needles, the parts of said instruments in line with the backs of the needles being of less thickness than the remainder thereof.

7. In a knitting machine, the combination of movable spring beard needles and instruments extending between the needles having beard needles, a needle carrier, a yarn guide,

yam-supporting faces and notches for determining the limits of movement of a yarnloop on the shanks of the needles, said instruments being thinner in the region of said notches than in the parts in line with the beards of the needles, means to move the needles, a yarn guide, and means to press the needle beards.

8. In a knitting machine movable springa needle-presser, and instruments extending between the needles, each of said instruments presenting a yarn-supporting face intersecting the surface defined by the needles,-

and having a notch providing a free path for the operation of the presser.

9. In a knitting machine movable spring beard needles, a needle-carrier, a yarn guide, a needle-presser and instruments extending between the needles, each of said instruments presenting a yarn-supporting face intersecting the surface defined by the needles, and having a notch providing a free path for the operation of the presser, and a notch on another face for determining the limits of movement of a yarn-loop on the shank of a needle.

10. In a circular knitting machine, movable spring-beard needles, a cam carrier and needle cams, a needle-carrier, a yarn guide, means to press the needle beards, and instruments extending between the needles, each of said instruments presenting a yarn-supporting face intersecting the surface defined by the needles, and having an external notch, providing a free path for the operation of the presser."

11. In a knitting machine, a needle carrier, movable spring-beard needles therein,

yarn supporting instruments between the needles at the verge of said carrier, notches in each of said instruments forming together ROBERT W. SCOTT. Witnesses WALTER LARKIN, CA'srAn C. SCI-IREIDER. 

